Author Archives: DomainNameWire

About DomainNameWire

Domain Name Wire is a blog that deals with the domain name sector. The blog covers a range of domain related topics ranging from issues concerning expiring domains, monetization, domain registries and registrars, ICANN, policy, law etc. The blog began in March, 2005, after Mr. Allemann had dropped out of meetings to become involved in domain portfolio company, iREIT. The project began as a hobby to keep him involved in the domaining business, and then became his full-time business.

Thu 5th July 2012
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Vanity.com files lawsuit to retard send of domain name - Lawsuit filed in Arizona to stop transfer of domain name after adverse UDRP determination. Last month a National Arbitration Forum panel handed down a shockingly bad decision over the domain name Vanity.com, ordering the domain transferred to Vanity Shop of Grand Forks, Inc. Now Vanity.com, Inc. has filed a federal lawsuit (pdf) to halt the transfer. Vanity.com had already filed suit in the Northern District of California prior to the UDRP decision. But in order to ... read more ...
 
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UDRP row orders stolen 3 minute domain name returned to owner - EZQ.com should belong to EZQuest, rules panel. Last month Michael Berkens wrote about how a UDRP panel affirmed that UDRP is not a forum for recovery stolen domain names. I agree that’s the case — most of the time. Yet over history some complainants have successfully used UDRP to recover stolen three letter domain names. That’s the case with EZQ.com, which was just awarded to EZQUEST, INC. EZQuest says the domain name was stolen earlier this year when the thief ... read more ...
Tue 3rd July 2012
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Entrepreneur Media continues to sue entrepreneurs who use a word entrepreneur - Got ‘entrepreneur’ in your name? If you publish information to help entrepreneurs, you might be sued. Entrepreneur Media (EMI), the company that publishes Entrepreneur magazine, continues to file lawsuits against people that use the term entrepreneur in their name or domain name. The latest lawsuit was filed July 2 against JMD Entertainment Group, a Maryland company that owns the domain name entrepreneursedge.tv. You’re not alone if you find the company’s ... read more ...
 
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Waiter.com sues GoWaiter.com for heading infringement - Does GoWaiter.com infringe Waiter.com’s mark? Here’s an interesting lawsuit that shows the challenges of building a business on a descriptive (aka ‘generic’) domain name. Waiter.com, a food delivery web site started in 1995, has sued GoWaiter.com, a similar service apparently started in 2010. Waiter.com has a trademark for “Waiter.com”, which it bases its complaint on. The plaintiff might have a case here (pdf). If the plaintiff’s name was FoodDelivery.com, ... read more ...
 
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Patent postulated for programmed web site gratefulness method - Patent describes system for generating automated appraisals of web sites. There are a lot of automated web site valuation and appraisal tools out there. Now the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued a patent covering a method of automatically valuing a web site. U.S. Patent 8,214,272 (pdf), issued today, covers “Web Site Valuation”. The patent’s abstract reads: According to the invention, a method for automatically determining an appraisal value of a web ... read more ...
Mon 2nd July 2012
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One domainer’s fascinating 15 year income statement - The ups and downs of the domain name business. Domain investor and web site creator Eric Borgos just published a list of the domains he has sold in the first half of the year. It’s quite interesting and worth a read. But I want to draw domainers’ attention to another page on Borgos’ site that has always fascinated me. He publishes his revenue and net profit by year dating back to 1997. To be clear, Borgos develops web sites on many of the domains he owns. But ... read more ...
 
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Academy Sports sues Blackwater over the new name Academi - Sports store not happy about private military company’s new name. Academy Ltd., which operates the Academy Sports + Outdoors retail chain, has sued Academi, formally known as Blackwater, for trademark infringement. Yes, that Blackwater. Academy is concerned that Academi’s negative image could tarnish its brand and that there could be consumer confusion. According to the suit (pdf), Given the corporate history of Defendant and the negative media coverage stemming ... read more ...
 
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Facebook says genuine estate organisation is cybersquatting on 30 domain names - 30 domains include “facebook” in them. Facebook has filed a cybersquatting complaint against a San Diego area realty company, claiming that the company is cybersquatting on its famous mark. The complaint with National Arbitration Forum lists thirty total domain names that include the Facebook name andrew are registered to Pellegrino Realty in La Mesa, California: facebookbroker.com facebookclothes.com facebookcupid.com facebookdating.net facebookdirectbuy.com facebookevites.com facebookexchange.com facebookexchange.net facebookgreeting.com facebookgreetings.com facebookhub.com facebookjukebox.com facebooklayoutpimp.com facebooklayoutpro.com facebookmusicstore.com facebookperfectmatch.com facebookpoked.com facebookpokers.com facebookpoking.com facebookpress.com facebookringtones.net facebookshop.net facebooksingles.net facebooksticker.com facebookstickers.net facebookstuff.net facebookthreads.net facebooktones.com pimpmyfacebook.net shopfacebook.net I ... read more ...
Fri 29th June 2012
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Google to let users “mute” remarketed ads - “Mute This Ad” on the way. Google is rolling out a new system to allow users to block certain ads from showing up as they surf the web, and it’s a very welcome feature. Over the past year the number of “remarketing” ads has exploded. These ads are served to you based on web sites you’ve previously visited. It may seem a bit creepy to some people to see ads for web sites they’ve visited show up on unrelated sites. I personally don’t mind — it’s ... read more ...
 
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Apple final iPad3.com domain name - Apple files complaint over iPad3.com domain name. [Update: the registrant of iPad3.com has turned the domain over to Apple.] Apple didn’t name its third generation iPad the “iPad 3″, but that hasn’t stopped most people from calling it that anyway. The company doesn’t own the domain name iPad3.com, but that might change soon. The company has asked an arbitration panel to transfer the domain name to it. Apple filed a case with World Intellectual Property Organization ... read more ...
 
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WAN.com closes on GoDaddy for $670,005 - Sale would be highest ever on Go Daddy’s auction platform. [Update: sale didn’t go through.] An auction on GoDaddy.com for the domain name WAN.com closed overnight for a whopping $670,005. Of course, one of the first questions asked after an auction like this is “will the sale go through”? The seller is definitely legitimate. Shane Cultra has a story on the seller who lives near him. If the deal closes then the seller will be able to buy Cultra a very nice ... read more ...
Thu 28th June 2012
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SnapNames strikes deals with dual Chinese domain marketplaces - Deals with Dnbiz and NameRich give company access to Chinese domain buyers and sellers. It seems that the big domain aftermarket players are setting their sights on China. SnapNames announced two partnerships this morning with Chinese domain name marketplaces. A deal with Dnbiz will give the company access to the Yumi.com distribution network. The Yumi.com network has over five million domain names. The other deal is with NameRich, another Chinese domain marketplace. Other ... read more ...
 
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Sayonara, Digital Archery - We hardly knew ye. Resolved (2012.06.27.NG06), the New gTLD Program Committee directs the President and CEO to terminate the Digital Archery process as approved in Resolutions 2011.12.08.04-2011.12.08.07. Rationale for Resolution 2012.06.27.NG06 To remain accountable to the ICANN community, after careful consideration of the objections raised to the digital archery process, and following the suspension of the process after identification of a technical issue, the ... read more ...
 
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Twitter finally gets Twiter.com domain it won in dispute - Over a half year later, Twitter finally gets high traffic typo. Last year Twitter filed a cybersquatting complaint against the owner of the Twiter.com domain name. Twitter was rightfully upset about the high traffic typo domain as it forward to a “survey” that mimicked the look and feel of Twitter’s own web site. Twitter dropped the case only to refile it shortly thereafter. A UDRP arbitration panel finally ruled in Twitter’s favor in November 2011. But that’s ... read more ...
 
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Some .mobi owners endangered about .mobile domain applications - Competition? Confusion? It remains to be seen. Some owners of .mobi domain names are concerned about confusion and competition if one of the applicants for a .mobile domain name should be approved. Indeed, the strings mobi and mobile are very similar. ICANN’s String Similarity Assessment Tool assigns a similarity score of 72, which is quite high. My take is .mobi owners don’t have to worry much about .mobile. Two of the three applications for .mobile were filed ... read more ...
Wed 27th June 2012
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IDN village reacts to Verisign’s .com transliteration selections - The good, the bad, and the ugly of Verisign’s IDN plans. Verisign applied for 12 internationalized top level domain names as part of the new TLD program. These domain names are transliterations of .com and .net. A transliteration is different from a translation. Transliteration maps the sounds of one language to the best matching script of another. For example, コム when said aloud will sound like “com”, and is only possible because those two characters ... read more ...
 
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Lawyers fire customer in feet in dothekindthing.com UDRP - Not so kind. A World Intellectual Property Organization panelist has ruled that the registrant of DoTheKindThing.com can keep her domain name. The case was brought by Kind, LLC f/k/a Peaceworks Holding LLC, which sells Kind snacks. The case is notable for two reasons: 1. Kind’s lawyers, McCarter English, LLP, made some poor decisions in advancing its case. 2. The UDRP panelist recognized the limits of domain arbitration as opposed to courts. First, for the legal ... read more ...
 
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.Nxt discussion rescheduled for August - London top level domain conference moved due to program delays. Kieren McCarthy’s .Nxt conference about new top level domain names has been rescheduled for August 29-31. The event was originally scheduled for last week, but became of a victim of ICANN’s delayed announcement of new top level domain applicants. Canceling or moving the dates of a conference can be a death knell, but given the circumstances this was probably a smart move by McCarthy. Now that the ... read more ...
 
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What domains FC Barcelona and 22 other finish users bought final week - Weekly report of end user domain sales: 23 on tap this week. Gooooal! Football (that’s soccer for us Americans) team FC Barcelona bought a domain on the aftermarket this week. Read on to find out which domain they bought. Afternic FC Barcelona (Futbol Club Barcelona) bought OABonline.com for $2,000. OAB is the name for the FC Barcelona Supporter Services Office. FilmFunds, which helps budding filmmakers get financing for their projects, bought FilmFans.com for $4,188. GivingCredit, ... read more ...
Tue 26th June 2012
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If we play a ICANN game, design to get burned - More wasted money and resources. Get used to it. It’s never pretty seeing the sausage get made. It hasn’t been pretty seeing the new TLD program launch. A handful of companies invested a lot of money early on as they worked to help form ICANN’s new top level domain program. As the program creation process dragged on they spent money on salaries, office space, etc. As it became clear that the process was going to take longer than expected they ended up laying ... read more ...
 
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Intriguing domain name associated heading filings - From “Domain Sales” to .YT, some interesting filings. I checked in to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office site this morning to see if there were any interesting domain name related trademark applications. Indeed, I’d say so. First off is an application from Kikabink Pty Ltd in Australia for the mark “Domain Sales”. The applicant is the creator of this iPhone app. I’ve got to think it would be difficult to trademark such a generic and descriptive term. Next ... read more ...
 
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ICANN sends crack notice to Tucows - Organization sends notice of breach to third largest domain name registrar. ICANN has sent a notice of breach to Tucows, the third largest domain name registrar. This breach notice is unusual in that it seems to stem from a dispute over a particular domain name. According to the letter, Tucows is in breach of its registrar accreditation agreement for two reasons: 1. Tucows’ failure to maintain registration data and records pursuant to Section 3.4 of the RAA; and 2. ... read more ...
 
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Go Daddy says ask to pierce Homelandsecurityus.com not about politics - Company says campaign committee and politics not at play in request to change web hosts. Last Friday GoDaddy.com sent a notice to the owner of Homelandsecurityus.com informing him that he needed to find a new home for his domain name and web site. Douglas J. Hagmann, founder of the site, tells his story here. He claims that one of the Obama campaign’s “truth teams” asked Go Daddy to give the site the boot. But Ben Butler, Network Abuse Director at Go Daddy, ... read more ...
Mon 25th June 2012
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What domains Major League Baseball and NBC bought final week - MLB, NBC, and 14 other end users recently purchased. I just got back from vacation in San Francisco. Since I only have one whitelisted IP address to hit Go Daddy’s servers for whois request (and that would be at my office), I’m a bit late on last week’s end user list. Notable on this week’s list: MLB picked up a domain for $1,500 and NBC Universal got one for only $1,000. Afternic First Rate, which provides investment results reporting solutions, bought InvestmentPerformance.com ... read more ...
 
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Lance Armstrong Foundation’s engaging skeleton for a .LiveStrong domain - An opportunity wasted and a couple hundred grand down the drain. I posted this tweet on the eve of the new top level domain reveal day: Offering a .livestrong domain seems like a good idea to me. Think of the millions of Lance Armstrong Foundation fans supporting the cause and wearing their yellow wristbands. Why not give each of them a name.livestrong domain name? They can use it to raise money, post about their battles with cancer, etc. Much of this functionality ... read more ...